Obama Insults Online Community for Supporting Marijuana Legalization

At his Online Town Hall meeting this morning, President Obama joked about the overwhelming popularity of marijuana legalization questions on his online forum.

Well, Mr. President, if you "don't know what this says about the online audience," allow me to clue you in. We're more than just some nicknames on a computer screen. We're Americans and we have the same right as anyone else to be heard and to be treated with respect.

As nearly a million among us are arrested each year for marijuana, it should come as no surprise to you that we've come together to ask why. The reason you find us in every category of your site is because the harms of the war on drugs reach into every facet of American life. Drug prohibition destroys all it touches and there is scarcely a problem we face as a nation that couldn’t be made more manageable by ending this great war that continues to stigmatize and divide us.

You can trivialize and dismiss our argument, but you cannot silence our movement. You make us more powerful with every public forum you hold.

"Despite the president's flippant comments today, the grievous harms of marijuana prohibition are no laughing matter. Certainly, the 800,000 people arrested last year on marijuana charges find nothing funny about it, nor do the millions of Americans struggling in this sluggish economy. It would be an enormous economic stimulus if we stopped wasting so much money arresting and locking people up for nonviolent drug offenses and instead brought in new tax revenue from legal sales, just as we did when we ended alcohol prohibition 75 years ago during the Great Depression."

I called the white house line to express vocally the outrage and disappointment I felt after seeing him make a funny out of this very serious issue.

Here is a copy of the letter I sent via the whitehouse.gov website
(instead of questions or comments, I listed it under "Congratulations"

Anyone is welcome to steal it and make it their own, what matters is getting out voice heard:

Dear Mr President,

I voted for you, but I also wanted to thank you for giving me the courage to speak out on issues I feel strongly about. I wanted to congratulate you on your exceptional ability to trivialize the waste and inefficiency the nation has come to know as the War on Drugs.

I want to reiterate the sentiments expressed by Jack Cole, executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition:
“Despite the president’s flippant comments today, the grievous harms of marijuana prohibition are no laughing matter. Certainly, the 800,000 people arrested last year on marijuana charges find nothing funny about it, nor do the millions of Americans struggling in this sluggish economy. It would be an enormous economic stimulus if we stopped wasting so much money arresting and locking people up for nonviolent drug offenses and instead brought in new tax revenue from legal sales, just as we did when ended alcohol prohibition 75 years ago during the Great Depression.”

I was shocked and disappointed to see your comments in relation to the Town hall question regarding cannabis hemp legalization.

The Schedule 1 Status of cannabis hemp as a completely dangerous and useless commodity is outrageous. It has many applications, including non-psychoactive lotions and ointments which have been shown through recent scientific inquiry to treat inflammatory skin conditions without any affects on the brain.

The negative impacts of marijuana on the users and our society are only be made worse by our current policies.
Study after study, including the Shafer commission report has stated that criminalizing adult use of cannabis is only harming our efforts to keep it away from kids, deal with the real problems of addiction and invests billions of dollars into an illegal criminal market where murders are common place.

Addiction is a public health issue, and treating it as a criminal justice issue only exacerbates the negative impacts on society and the user.

Hemp as an industrial agricultural product has thousands upon thousands of applications, and we import hemp made products into this country including textiles, plastics and foods.

I don’t understand why our farmers are unable to take advantage of this highly renewable plant, and I’m shocked that you would like to continue to ban the cultivation of the plant our founding fathers used to their advantage in our revolution. Well, I understand it has to do with a corporate monopoly of the agricultural sector and a racist and unscientific passage of unjust laws only a few generations previous.
I guess, what I don’t understand is how we can still allow these laws to ruin peoples lives while supplying billions of dollars to murdering cartels and not stop to ask “Why don’t we try something different?”

I was at a local Town Hall meeting this last weekend, with my state representatives and took the time to express my questions about the effectiveness of the war on drugs. I received applause for my statement that these corrupt, wasteful and counterproductive policies need to be changed, just like you received applause for making a joke at the expense of those 300 Million Marijuana Convicts that have served time, lost educational opportunities and experienced suffering because of our War on Drugs.

Again, congratulations for being able to find humor in a situation so many Americans view as a travesty of justice.

Why do all political hacks, including Obama, (I voted for him) need to keep criminals in charge? If for no other reason, than removing billions of tax free dollars from the illegal drug trade, we need to legalize what is currently happening everywhere. And a smirking joke, is not what I expected when I threw my lot to Obama. So now, President Obama, tell us why the hell you have turned into another Nixon? I'm sure part of your answer has to do with getting reelected, but Sir, you lost any chance of ever getting my vote again. Stop supporting an ongoing criminal enterprise. Legalize and tax and remember we are adults in a "free" society, we need adults to be in charge of our government.

Please keep religion out of the topic please. God is a horrible justification for ANYTHING! Spanish Inquisition, slaughtering of all native on North American continent, etc. and etc...

I am so disillusioned by President Obama trivializing the violence, corruption,and inhumane drug laws that wreak havoc on families, and society. As a medical marijuana patient, I am deeply offended by his remark. I am an Army vet, and a now a teacher( MAT Reading). I have a BS in science . What exactly did he mean? That because I use marijuana, somehow I am deficient, deviant or unmotivated? That we are somehow not important for you to give us the respect we deserve as your constituents? I canvassed for you. I made phone calls for you. I attended rallies for you. I voted for you. Can you hear my heart breaking?

He should show a little more respect for the issue and think about the potential of future generations we are squandering. In hard economic times we need as many people as possible working and in school, not limited in opportunities for possession of marijuana. This is completely Un-American.

The simple fact that Obama wouldn't even give the most popular question a fair answer, and just laughed it off and implied that people in favor of legalization are stoners is enough reason for me to change my views of his capabilities to make sound decisions. Those people that you insulted today were the same people that voted you into office, don't count on a second term Mr. Obama, because we need someone who can deliver change, not just promise it.

Isn't the whole reason Obama got elected was that he had a huge base of people who coordinated themselves via the internet and used online resources effectively? Now he turns around and insults the online community. Fan-frickin-tabulous.

For anyone who voted Obama seeking change: next election 100% completely disregard EVERYTHING a candidate says. Base who you are going to vote for on their VOTING RECORD up to that point. A candidate might talk the talk, but if he doesn't walk the walk then HE IS LYING no matter how well he talks or how much you want to believe him.

If all else fails, vote third party, less you be throwing your vote away. And if you say voting third party is pointless, consider this, every year more and more people are voting third party. So initially only 1% of the population might vote for a non-mainstream candidate, but then it'll be 2%, and then 3% and so forth until we've gained a critical mass and the rest of the country can't ignore us. Every vote counts in bumping up that percentage even if its .00001%. Last election EVERY third party candidate wanted to end the war on drugs. 3rd party is truly the way to get real reform (obviously main-party candidates like Ron Paul being the exception, but even he promoted 3rd party bids after he dropped out).

And Obama knows that damn well.
But I must say, when it comes to progress on medicinal and recreational cannabis, I'm looking more to the states than to the feds anyway, the feds, not just Obama, are hopeless junkies to their war on selected drugs. But the time is ripe for non-southern states to ok medicinal cannabis. And, with 40% support nationally, there's a good chance that some of the more progressive states would pass a referendum to legalize all adult use of weed if it was held today.

I was an alternate delegate for Obama's campaign last year in Texas, and I couldn't be more disappointed right now. I knew I might be disappointed in him, just not this early in his administration.

As a 37 year old black man who grew up in Hyde Park, just a few blocks from where his private residence is, I thought I knew the man, and I was hopeful that somewhere in his first term we might at least decriminalize marijuana. Now I see he is captive to the same backward thinking as 'the Man.' I thought his thinking would be more enlightened. So many of us have mental illnesses. To so flippantly blow off the online community like that. With the recession, I think there are more people smoking on the sly than ever before. Thanks a lot, sir.

Everyone here that is posting these excellent comments on their dissapointment in someone we thought we could believe in needs to send HIM the message. Its great that we are speaking out, but we need our voices to be heard by the right people. Send the white house letters, emails, and make phone calls of your dissapointment. If we want the change to be enacted we need to be heard by actually doing something rather then expressing ourselves in a forum of poeple who are obviously going to agree with our stance.

I thought the 'New Boss' would be a true leader of Men and a Champion of the People. I guess we were wrong.

Actions such as this just serve to intensify my anger, my distrust, my disgust, and my hatred of ALL politicians white or black!
I guess politicians really do serve only the influential members of our society.

Guys, I think that everybody needs to take a deep breath and be thankful for how far things have moved on this subject in terms of poll numbers. I'm 34 now, and I've been following this debate since the 8th grade. When I was in college, I used to work with David Borden and others on raising awareness. Given everything that's happened since, I really think that we need to be sincerely happy with how far things have come, and recognize those who have made it even possible to be talking about regulation, taxation and decriminalization. Only a few short years ago, this was not even possible.

Within this context, I have serious doubts that blaming Obama is the proper solution. I agree that the time is right for a change in the laws. But I would argue that there's just a bit further to go in terms of public support. I believe we can do better. And strategically speaking, it's really the media that's dropping the ball here. I mean, we have a large number of studies by now that demonstrates without much doubt that THC is an effective treatment for cancer ...

We can put Obama on the spot given his own personal history by pushing on this particular issue, and merely pointing out the facts on his mother's usage. That would, IMHO, be a smarter route than directly criticizing him because it would permit us to stay on a positive note. Obama has opened the door for us by lifting the blockade on research. He's basically begging us to increase public support with additional (American) studies.

There should be advertisements touting these cancer studies on billboards across the country. Where are they?

Why is the topic of marijuana's efficacy in the treatment of cancer rarely discussed within the mainstream media? There is a very serious problem with the reporting going on here. I'd personally like to see a campaign to target journalists who are not reporting on this issue properly. It's a scandal.

Not only do we need to ask reporters why they aren't reporting on this, but we should also be asking why the public has not been spreading the word w/o the media. Many people who regularly smoke marijuana have parents who used to, but for whatever reason, came to the conclusion that the drug is bad. They are operating on information that is 20, 30 or even 40 years old. We need to start up a campaign in magazines like High Times and other various publications to convince marijuana users to have a straight talk with their parents about the drug. Parents are under the mistaken impression that they are well-informed on the issue, and yet if you talk to them, they will tell you with a straight face that ALL people who smoke pot are funding the Mexican cartels. Or, they'll tell you that smoking pot will inevitably be shown to cause lung cancer, with no apparent understanding that the issue is largely settled already. These words come straight out of my own mother's mouth this past week. This, IMO, is a problem of courage. Kids need to muster up the courage to talk to their parents on this difficult issue.

There is a scene in Milk where the gays all decide to come out of the closet in order to demonstrate that somebody they love is gay. And remember the Sarah Silverman approach to getting Obama Florida? She had people with parents in Florida talk to their parents. I think we need to start up a campaign to educate our own parents. If every smoker was told that they are part of the problem for not speaking up about the positives of marijuana use to their parents, then that could have a very large impact even further upon the poll numbers. This idea could go viral. It could be billed as "Marijuana's National Coming Out Day".

I guess my own personal feeling is that it's wrong to expect Obama to want to make an issue of this topic when he's already got a completely full agenda that could already completely wipe out huge chunks of his support. He really does have limited political capital to spend. And an objective observation of his response will indicate that that was the deciding factor in his decision today. His response today was basically a muted one-word response. I think that means something. In politician speak, it is fair to interpret that as a show of respect. And the fact is that we can continue to push these poll numbers even further with additional education of the public. We don't need Obama to do this; we may even be wrong to be handing him the problem at this time. Sure, he is rather messianic on most other topics, but maybe we should let him decide how he wants to spend his political capital, and just let him know that we will continue to lay down additional public support for him until there is no capital at all required on the issue. Convincing people to legalize a natural, harmless treatment for cancer should really be a no-brainer. If we don't think we can handle that, then I sincerely don't get it.

Respect to David Borden and all of the activists,
Chris & Bobby G Blunt
HTimes Freelancers

If you've been following this since the 60's, then you know quite well that people are far more educated now than they used to be. Netnews.alt.drugs was, to my knowledge, one of the first usenet boards in existence. It is this education that is moving the poll numbers. It's efforts like Borden's on Digg.com -- which reaches millions of people -- that's raising awareness. And so long as the poll numbers keep on moving in the right direction, we have nothing to worry about. The second that those poll numbers reverse direction, then we have a major friggin problem. Progress on this issue is not something you put into the microwave. It's a very slow-motion boil.

I work on other grassroots issues as well. I work with a small group of physicists who have figured out some really important things, and nobody is listening to them. Progress is amazingly slow. But, there is still steady progress. These two situations are very similar.

Obama is only relevant as far as the current moment is concerned. As much as it sincerely does suck that people are still going to jail (there is plenty to get mad about), the long-term view is what's ultimately most important.

Sir, you are wrong! Frankly, I am tired of the whole medical marijuana movement. It does a disservice to legalization in general and it only clouds the issue and the issue is civil rights. I have a right to smoke marijuana under the NINTH Amendment of the Constitution. There is NO constitutional amendment banning marijuana and other drugs as there was for alcohol. On it's face the war on marijuana is unconstitutional and yet the reform movement doesn't strike from that angle. WHY? Sir, we are at at the tipping point and this is NO time to let up. The bucket is about to tip over and the water is about to come spilling out. What part of 58% of West Coasters supporting marijuana legalization is not understood? What part of 48% of East Coaster supporting legalization and not even a majority supporting criminalization isn't understood. What part of Massachussets and California proposing legalzation is not understood? What part of Red State Montana supporting medical marijuana is not understood? What part of 890,000 peaceful Americans arrested each year AND TAKEN OFF THE TAX ROLLS is not understood?

What you are suggesting is that we be grateful and stop pushing as hard. Grateful for what? I'm still under threat of prison. I'm still under threat of losing my job. I'm still under threat of losing my home and car. No! I am not going to be grateful. I've been fighting this war since I've been out of the Military in 1992. I've been smoking since1978. I'm done being accepting being treated as a criminal. Sir, I'm going to push harder than ever because if not now, when. Are we supposed to accept 890,000 more arrest? NO! Are we supposed to accept another 7,000 dead in Mexico and elsewhere? NO! Are we supposed to accept another peaceful pot smoker losing his kids, his job, his freedom, his dignity, his house, his car etc and possibly face rape. NO! That is why I am pissed today and that is why he will not get my vote again unless he legalizes. I am done with these Quisling psuedo democrats. I am done playing a losers game of the lesser of two evils. I voted for this piece of human trash and his drug war hawk of a vice president and look what I got for it. He lied about no more raids. He is continuing the same ol same old drug interdiction and now militarization of the drug war. He is a FRAUD and a HYPOCRITE and LIAR!!!!

I did not vote for Obama because i could see that he is just another drug warrior.

He LIED. He is still raiding medical pot dispensaries.

He mocks the pot reform people who shut up during the campaign because he LIED to them offering them platitudes and vague promises.

There is only one thing that will end the prohibition, us Americans streaming out into the streets screaming at Obama, the congress and state legislatures:

NO MORE DRUG WAR!

NO MORE DRUG WAR!

NO MORE DRUG WAR!

NO MORE DRUG WAR!

We need organizations that will LEAD US instead of following the politicians.

----- FAX PROTEST THRU MONDAY MORNING -----
U.S. Senator John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is going to El Paso,TX on Monday to thump his chest and look macho over the blood and chaos caused by his drug war policy. I wrote to him in his capacity at chair of the committee and I am encouraging others to write to him also. And if your senator is on the committee write to them too. Contact information for the committee is on the letter.

Obama included $3-billion in the stimulus package for Byrne Grants for drug task forces.

Clinton assured the Mexican government that the administration knows that America has to control demand.

In the campaign people misinterpreted Obama when he talked about the injustice of more black Americans than white Americans being in prison for drugs. He was not implying that he would arrest fewer blacks. He was hinting that he will arrest more whites.

So what do you think that $3-billion will stimulate?

Add 2+2+2 folks and you get more drug courts. More drug courts need more arrests. More arrest need more police. More police need more prisons. And more coerced rehab to rationalize the lie that America is controlling demand.

This is authoritarianism in its most addicted state. It will not be reduced by any means except the America people in the streets fighting it with all our hearts and bodies.

when are they going to stop raging war and be reasonable?....war is never the answer. I'm getting very disappointed in my choice for Obama....I think we've been had....from now on I'm voting third party...not that our vote means anything....the same faceless powers rule everything with their wealth...can't get to them...but they can get to us....their puppets just make us think we can.

Three of the top issues people voted at Change.org, Obama's site, for the administration to address, related to scaling back the "War on Drugs." The single top issue drawing the MOST votes was "Legalize the Medicinal and Recreational Use of Marijuana." The THIRD most popular issue was "End the War on Drugs" and the ELEVENTH most popular issue was "Decriminalize Marijuana/Hemp." This combined showing FAR outweighed the interest in any other single issue!

Obama is being disingenuous and insulting millions of medicinal and recreational marijuana users and millions more people who use other banned substances, and millions MORE people who don't use them but want to end the insane criminal stupidity of wasting billions of taxpayer dollars on a failed war on drug users.

Please check out this animated video on the philosophy of liberty and share it with anyone who doesn't understand why it is wrong for government to tell us what we can or cannot choose to put into our own bodies: http://www.isil.org/resources/introduction.swf

Sorry boob-o's it's "legal" to invest drug money in offshore banks.Thats some sweet cash for the financial vultures.Without the drug cartels investing in offshore banks the economy would really be zip.The drug war makes Dyncorp, Blackwater (so evil they changed their name to just Xe after all the atrocities they committed) and Haliburton rich,and countless others.If he legalized your weed it would be worth about as much as a dandelion.That would be REAL bad for the economy.Just give up.Never gonna happen.They let you smoke it at the Obama rallies and in Chicago before he was elected because they knew you were all ready tto revolt under Bush.New Puppet 4U who capitalized on your inability to figure out the good cop bad cop trick..Hows it feel to be a sucker?Sorry Charlie that is sustainable development and is so factored into the economy whatever argument you have is like a fart in church to them.....not to mention the private prisons(homosexual rape camps the proud partnership runs) that employ a lot of sadists.In some towns, the entire economy is built around private prisons and support services.<~google video Stanford Prison Experiment.See why prison guards go sadist.
Nope you may as well get some Welbutrin and be legal! Your drug war is never going to end.There is a lot of violence and a lot of gunplay going on at the US Mexico border.
That means arms sales,and less "carbon footprints" with all the victims of the violence at the border.Thats one of the stories they don't think you want to see on the silly news.Maybe a half second mention.Well if he "legalized"your weed there would be a negative impact on all the money that flows in the corruption that goes along with it.Corruption is pretty lucrative.
Hillary says it's your fault for wanting the drugs.Not the drug cartels that are killing over turf.If that was legal the drug cartel violence would stop because it would be as valuable as some crabgrass.
Lotsa murders that would stop at the Mexican border that is why stinky Ol Mrs.Mena Hillary was visiting with the Mexican Presidential Puppet.Violence at the border.The Obama Character knows he better keep the gravy train going.
Komrade Bill Klinton has stated many times that privatized prisons SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT.
LOL @ you ....You're the PRODUCT !
PS Mayor Daley in Chicago is giving police powers to foreign security firms he
fornicates with.
Privatized police do not operate for the public good.
They need to make a profift.
It's the law. To do as much as they can to create returns for the stockholders.
So after privatized police get their foot in the door you are REALLY gonna get your butts kicked.Quit now.Just forget about it.I guess you should have voted for Ron Paul,but he was demonized because they knew he would have really changed things,and we can't have that when corruption is so much fun and financially rewarding,and the Madison Ave Ad Agencies polished the Obama terd(Now you have Chicago Politics)<~I'm from Chicago...suckers! Google Mayor Daley and in the top suggestions google gives you Mayor Daley Corruption.The Obama character says he learned EVERYTHING he learned about politics in Mayor Daleys "tough on crime"<~for a really tough fine, Chicago In Chicago if you get arrested they also sue you with a civil suit for making them arrest you. We had more murders than the death count in Iraq. Welp theres your shiny Obama Terd from Madison ave with donations from all the bailed out corporate nice guys. You should have researched the candidates instead of believing the television news that you were gonna get "change"with the corporate candidate with no experience.But he is good looking ....and he talks better than the
Bush Character ! And ...Obama looks good in a swimmin'suit too! Hahahaha

I was just waiting to see when the disappointment would come. People that voted for Obama was expecting too much. It was obvious that this would not gonna happen, people! Anyone ever thought that a recently elected American president, that is trying hard to gain credibility among conservatives and Republicans (he need them too) would answer yes to a question like legalize Marijuana?! The worst I can see on this is how he transformed this question into a joke in front of a local audience that laughed and applauded, as if it was a stupid question coming from useless people that wants Marijuana to be legalize only to permit them to smoke freely and continues doing nothing and not contributing to improve the US economy. We have to stop this mentality! If at least he had said something like - "drug use should stop being treated as a police problem and should rather be considered as a health problem" - like many bureaucrats around the world are saying, (just to appear that they care, of course, but I think this is at least a shift in attitude towards this issue).

Obama lied to drug policy reform activists during the campaign to stop them from confronting him and detracting from his campaign. Instead many of the activists believed Obama and became supporters and 'online' activists for Obama. Now he mocks the online activists and belittles them while their issue is among the most supported and voted for issues when HE requested issues and signs of support for issues. Obama LIED!

Last month Obama said that busts at medical marijuana dispensaries would stop. But the day before the town hall meeting there was another bust at a medical marijuana dispensary in San Francisco. Obama LIED!

Obama is just another right-wing Democrat doing what right-wing Democrats do, manipulate and lie to core constituencies in order to keep them down while he at the same time panders to the right-wing oppressors and subverters of American democratic and constitutional values of social justice, civil liberties and human rights.

Get out in the streets people. Get onto the front pages of news papers with your rage against the Obama drug war political machine. Scream it loud and scream it long:

It was all just a joke for the vote. He's just as two faced as anyone else in Washington. This country would have to lay off a whole bunch of cops if the drug war ended. Not a good idea for a black president ! Besides the DEA is really in charge.

I had no illusions about either of the two major party candidates, they don't get to be major party candidates unless they are aleady sold out whores. I've been saying this ever since Reagan, every election, but nearly everyone ignores that fact when they get into the voting booth. They use the excuse "but we've got to vote for the lesser of the two evils, or else the worse one will get in".

Bullshit, people! If EVERYONE who didn't like either major party candidate had voted for the Libertarian candidate (I didn't like Barr, didn't trust him, either, too recently he was a big bad drug warrior, but the previous LP candidates were true libertarians) in previous elections, and if everyone who had supported Ron Paul and his position actually voted for him in the primaries and local and state conventions, this election, we wouldn't, now, have to live the next 4 years with an "evil", sold out (to the elites) whore of a president saying one thing and doing another.

Obama must be just another secret society hack who did the elephant walk frat ritual working for big pharm-cigarette criminal mercantilism without substance, but who knows how to throw his voice in front of a teleprompter...

1) The "Live" event was to take place at 11:30Am, but did not start until about 11:39Am, this must have been the time that the "hand picked audience" was told how to respond to Obamas response.

2) Scott Morgan must be working his ASS OFF, because I do not see as many frequent post of his as usual. Come on, Hillarys comments are just waiting and are tailer made for Scott, and don't get me started on Pelosi.

Obama just lost me as a crucial ally, there is simply no way for me to explain this without him being a manipulative jerk somehow factoring into it. I don't believe in his change anymore.

What the question says about the online audience is that some of his core supporters (according to his campaign manager I was one of the first 10,000 to donate) have examined the evidence and come to pretty much the default rational conclusion, which is that the drug war is a failure. Oh yeah, and I'm a medical marijuana patient too, so the various "stoner" slams are in effect personal insults attacking me directly.

I sent the white house two e-mails about this, one quite angry and the other a bit more calm and coherent. From now on whenever someone asks me to explain/defend an Obama position - which happens almost every day, and has since early 2008 - I'm going to tell them that Obama and I are through. His loss.

It is my perception that the drug war guarantees that all illegal drugs cause even more dangers and costs to society.

Drug cartels continue killing for control of regions and most people are afraid to witness against them. Corrupt cops, who feed the drug war, plant illegal drugs in order to bring down good people that they consider troublesome (e.g. whistle blowers). This would not occur with legalization. Illegal drug debts turn extremely violent, because dealers do not expect their debtors to call the police for fear of a drug record and fear of retaliation for ratting. In general, I think most people do not want to bring danger against their households by pointing out drug dealers or crooked police officers. This fear-induced suppression couldn't happen without criminalization. Other than a few informants, the police pretty much stand alone in the physical/tangible ineffectiveness of this war.

Societies, not just the dealers and users, pay so much more simply because of drug criminalization. Where is all the big money going? Who are the people who profit most from criminalization? I believe they are the prohibitionists, suppressors and oppressors - no matter how innocent their disguises appear. Their prophets, in essence, argue that with legalization everyone WILL run out and take up the ugliness of crack or meth addiction, because they've seen the ugly effects of these drugs on television and the Internet. Yeah, right... and when gays are no longer picked on, everyone will become gay... and the Second Amendment is to blame for gun violence... and knives are to blame for stabbings...

RE: Obama Town Meeting

Obama didn't say he opposes the legalization of cannabis. I heard him say "I don't think that (marijuana trade) is a good strategy to grow the economy". The networks tell us that politicians, judges, and police are intimidated by these billionaire cartels that can purchase 10,000 assassinations for a measly million dollars. A congressional bill to end prohibition must have signatures on it - signatures of people who have names, faces, homes, and loved ones to protect from pissed off cartels.

So many seemingly intelligent people are fixated on propagating this extremely unwise drug war. Are they ill informed or just plain insidious? Are they afraid of speaking on the contrary? I guess it would be difficult for them to admit gullibility or guile, but the fear factor speaks volumes about silence in the face of vicious, wealthy, resourceful and vindictive cartels that have lived and prospered by the sword of prohibition and will die ONLY by the sword of legalization.

Pharmaceutical companies are permitted to sell a multitude of costly derivative cannabis products for treating and healing various ailments, which net them billions of dollars, while hundreds of thousands of young adults are in prison or have damning criminal records for possessing the very same plant. Medical Marijuana advocates must compete with the alcohol, tobacco, oil, and drug cartels that lobby governments with the same DuPont pseudo-science 'Reefer Madness' propaganda. What argument do the alcohol and tobacco industries use for their legalization? What do they say to counter the 'Alcohol and Tobacco Madness' that we know is not just silly BS?

Other Arguments:

I heard a police officer on TV suggest, "the war on rape hasn't stopped rape, should we legalize rape?" Rape falls under the crime category of assault, and sometimes homicide - there is at least one victim involved.

Under which of the following categories of crime does drug possession fall? Is drug possession an act of homicide, assault, extortion, vandalism, theft, fraud, or criminal negligence? Laws should only pertain to trespass. ["forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us."] Morality should be left to doing good to each other, without judgment against personal vices and pleasures.

Someone might ask, "There is a war against the ivory trade. Do we legalize the ivory trade in order to stop it?" Causing species to go extinct is, at the very least, eco-vandalism and criminal negligence. We have a responsibility to take care of this earth.

Furthermore, regarding the use of organs from endangered species for medicine: If medicine could be derived from wild and endangered animal organs, what's stopping the drug companies from raising, controlling and producing drugs from bears, or rhinos? The Pharmies get to possess and play with magic mushrooms, cannabis, opium, coca. I believe that profiteers and their scientists know that there is very little, if any, medicinal value in wild animal parts. They do know that there is significant value in cannabis though; such value that its legalization threatens their empires.

A few hemp uses: Fuel, lubricant, protein, healthy food products, medicine, fiberboard, construction materials, textiles, paper, rubber... the list goes on. Hemp provides a renewable abundance of materials at a much faster rate than the conventional industries, and with minimal to no pollution.

I believe that, out of necessity, prohibition will end. I hope it ends soon enough that hemp reforestation can resume its 4 to 1 yield over other forests or crops. The oil and drug cartels will continue to lobby, fabricate 'facts', and create opposition in order to delay this great common dream.

This you for this opportunity to air my perception of this prohibition issue.
~ yezbok

If you think anything will change by electing someone you people are sorely mistaken. Want change? demand it. Martin Luther King Jr. did not wait and vote for an official to change what was going on. Every president promises change and every person believes that bullshit - get educated people. Look at the statistics of those in prison for drug charges. its above 250,000. That's tax dollars spent to keep people in jail who don't deserve to be there in the first place.